Jeb Bush has adopted a new cause: punishing absentee lawmakers. And it just so happens some of his 2016 rivals are prime offenders.
On Monday, Bloomberg reports, Bush gave a speech in Tallahassee, where he proposed docking the pay of “absentee members” of Congress.
"Consider a pattern in Congress of members who sometimes seem to regard attendance and voting as optional, something to do as time permits," he said. "And if it's an incentive they need, how about the one that pretty much every worker in America has in their job? If you don't show up, you don't get paid for the time that you miss."
2016 contenders Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, and Lindsey Graham were all in the top 10 for worst attendance records of 2015.
Rubio—once thought to be a Bush “protégé”—was recently dubbed one of the most absentee members in Congress. Since 2011, he has missed 99 votes, 8.3 percent of the total.
Cruz, meanwhile, has missed the majority of his committee hearings, and ranked 97th in attendance for the beginning of 2015.
In one particularly high-profile instance, he missed the final confirmation vote on Attorney General Loretta Lynch.
Cruz later told reporters he “had a scheduling conflict,” and that “The cloture vote was the vote that mattered, I voted ‘no,’ and she was confirmed because Republican leadership chose to confirm her.”
But, as Bloomberg notes, Jeb won’t be scoring any points against frequent sparring-partner Rand Paul: Paul has a sparkling attendance record, making 99.9 percent of Senate roll call votes this year.